Swords

One of the most popular armaments in history, the sword is arguably the most deadly yet versatile weapon available to a fighter. Comprised of a blade and hilt, the hilt comprising of a pommel for offsetting the weight of the blade, and a grip for holding it straight. Many designs include a guard that protects the fingers and knuckles. The blade itself can either be curved or straight; curved, convex swords like the falchion and the scimitar, are used for slashing attacks, and thus are only sharpened on one side of the blade. The straight, double-edged blades such as the broadsword or the mighty claymore can be used to both thrust and slash. The tip of the blade is usually tapered off to aid in thrusting, but many designs have simple flat ends to aid in balance.

Swords have great variety in range, damage, Attack Rate, and durability. The small dagger is among the weakest weapons in the game, while the largest two-handed swords can rival axes and polearms for dealing massive damage, and having a long reach and plenty of durability as well. As with all melee weapons, the Barbarian is very skillful with a sword, and has a Sword Mastery skill. The other characters are all decent with swords as well, and the Necromancer even has a melee skill that only works with a dagger.

Swords possess nearly every magical modifier you can find on a weapon, and may be socketed as well. There are also numerous unique, Rare, and Set Item swords.

Larger and more damaging than daggers, but smaller than the might two-handed swords. One of the most popular weapons in the game, swords are used by all character types for their fast striking and solid damage. Swords deal no specially high damage to any type of monster, but they are consistently damage to all, and can be found in a very large variety. Barbarians tend to prefer the larger range and damage of two-handed swords, which they can wield one-handed. All other characters have to stick to the one-handed swords if they wish to use a shield at the same time.

Damage Bonus: This determines how you multiply the item damage by your stats to reach the actual damage. Each 100 points in that stat doubles your weapon's total physical damage. All swords are 100 Str, which means every point in strength adds 1% to your total weapon damage. 100 points in Str doubles the weapon damage.

Item Level: Used in many in-game calculations. Monsters must be of this level to drop the item, and it factors in when you get to gamble for this item type as well.

Weapon Speed: A relative comparison to other weapons of the same type. 0 is the base -10, -20, etc is faster, 10, 20, etc is slower, always in increments of 10. Each 10 is equivalent to an SIAS item. Characters are abbreviated to their first letter, with Am = Amazon and As = Assassin.

Range: Goes from 1 (least) to 5 (most), and is identical for all weapon types. I.E. a 3 sword = a 3 spear = a 3 hammer.

Exceptional items can only be found in Nightmare and Hell in Diablo II. In the Expansion they can be found in Acts 4 and 5 of normal as well, depending on the level of the item and the level of the monsters you are killing.

Two-handed swords, as the name implies, must be wielded with two hands by six of the seven characters, precluding the use of a shield with them. Barbarians are the one exception to the rule, as they can wield all 2H swords in one hand, even dual-wielding them, though the 2H swords do much lower damage when wielding in one-hand only. They have greater range though, and still a quite fast attack rate, and most Barbarians go this route, especially to get the 3 range for their Whirlwind. If your Barbarian is mostly a melee fighter, and doesn't need more range with WW, any sword or mace is usable, with damage and attack speed being the important factors then.

Damage Bonus: This determines how you multiply the item damage by your stats to reach the actual damage. Each 100 points in that stat doubles your weapon's total physical damage. All swords are 100 Str, which means every point in strength adds 1% to your total weapon damage. 100 points in Str doubles the weapon damage.

Item Level: Used in many in-game calculations. Monsters must be of this level to drop the item, and it factors in when you get to gamble for this item type as well.

Weapon Speed: A relative comparison to other weapons of the same type. 0 is the base -10, -20, etc is faster, 10, 20, etc is slower, always in increments of 10. Each 10 is equivalent to an SIAS item. Characters are abbreviated to their first letter, with Am = Amazon and As = Assassin.

Range: Goes from 1 (least) to 5 (most), and is identical for all weapon types. I.E. a 3 sword = a 3 spear = a 3 hammer.

Exceptional items can only be found in Nightmare and Hell in Diablo II. In the Expansion they can be found in Acts 4 and 5 of normal as well, depending on the level of the item and the level of the monsters you are killing.